On Wed. when I went into work for my 12hr. shift I was greeted by the night shift nurses at the elevator (not a good sign). It turns out that we had 1 RN call out which left us with only 2 RNs for 20 patients, so I wound have 10. I had 1 Natrecor and Lasix gtt, 1 patient had to get 1 unit PRBC and 4 units FFP with ER shiley placement for dialysis, 1 patient was dying, 2 were combative and confused, 1 Amiodarone gtt, 1 Cardizem gtt, and 3 were semi-ambulatory. Mind you all were on tele, I/O's, etc. I was so overwhelmed I cannot even describe the state of mind I was in. We can have up to 7 patients with drips, tele (we have to read our own), etc. but 10 is unsafe to say the least. My nurse manager was on the floor and didn't seem to see the problem. Personally I feel she should have taken an assignment. The other nurse and I pulled our manager to the side and told her that we cannot work like this, that it is unsafe, tele alarms are going off, patients are practically being neglected, and she told us we just have to prioritize. I wanted to run when she said that. Prioritize! Was she serious? The answer was to get another nurse. Later on in the morning, a nurse who lives 2 blocks from the hospital dropped in to say hello and had no idea what was happening b/c they never even called her to come in(I come to find out that 4 RN's that I talk to outside of work were never called to come in either so I wonder if they even tried to replace the call out). When she asked if she could stay and take an assignment our nurse manager told her no they are doing fine. I cried the entire way home and even harder when I got home. I have never had such a terrible day in my career (mind you I have only been a nurse for 8 months but still this topps all) We generally have staffing issues but never in the entire 8 months that I have been there has things been that bad. Does anyone else think this is unsafe? Am I overreacting? All we needed was a code and that was it. They would have been doing CPR on me. Any advice on what I can do going forward to help prevent this? (Our chief nursing officer doesn't even know we are short staffed per our head cardiologist) Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.
